The Pistons always play the Jazz hard, and always seem to come up short. Nothing changed Monday night when the two teams met in Utah, where the Pistons have only won 2 games in the last 20 years there. Just like games in the past, this one came down to the wire with the Jazz pulling it out 97-102.
Key Points:
- A valiant effort for the Pistons who played hard all night and saw 11 lead changes and 15 ties.
- Huge night for T-mac who started again in place of Rodney Stuckey. McGrady was one rebound away from a triple-double. Impressive again for Tracy who’s running the offense as good as it has been in quite some time for Detroit. He finished the game with 11 points, 11 assists, 9 boards and just one turnover in 34 minutes on the floor for Detroit.
- Stuckey played limited minutes (13) in his first game back from the stomach flu. You could tell he didn’t quite have his legs under him after just starting to eat solid food on Sunday. He finished with 3 points, 3 assists and 2 boards.
- I’ll say it again, I like Stuckey…just not as the Pistons starting PG.
Kuester on T-mac “I thought he was outstanding. Thought he did a good job at controlling the pace of the game, making good decisions with the basketball. You know 11 assists with one turnover is very impressive.”
- Highlights of the game via NBA.com
[flashvideo file=http://nba.cdn.turner.com/nba/big/games/jazz/2011/01/03/0021000504_det_uta_recap.nba_nba_576x324.flv /]
- Sad that a Raja Bell three sank this for Detroit. Was his foot on the line, looked like it to me, but for some reason the officials chose not to look at the replay.
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Detroit trailed by three 101-97 and Tracy McGrady’s 3-pointer from the top of the key with 6 second left was off mark. Williams was fouled and hit his free throws to end the game.
- A little better free throw shooting and this game could have changed things when
Tracy McGrady: “I think we kind of just lose sight of what we really want to accomplish as far as our execution offensively. We haven’t really put together consistently four quarters. We play well for a half or three quarters but then we always have that quarter that lets us down. That really hurts us at the end. For the most part we played pretty well for all four quarters. I think we kind of lost attention to detail at the end. We gave up a big three to Raja Bell. And execution defensively kind of hurt us a little bit.”
- Tayshaun Prince was on fire, leading Detroit with 26 points on 11-for-19 shooting. It can easily be said that Tay has been one of the best Pistons on floor all season long.
- 5 Pistons in double figures, including Rip and Ben Gordon who changed places in the starting lineup. Rip with 15 and Gordon had 14.
- Chris Wilcox, the Pistons current spark plug, was out due to a groin pull.
- Ben Gordon, who made three of six from downtown, was on the bench, as he was for the entire fourth quarter. Shouldn’t he have at least been on court in the final seconds of the game for a possible 3 point make?
- Monroe is working through the ins and outs of the league. Though his stat line wasn’t huge, he did a nice job on the defensive end. He also threw down a huge dunk to keep Detroit alive in the fourth to make 97-98.
- Charlie V with foul trouble, but still managed to hit some big shots.
- It’s surprising to say this night in and night out, but who is this team?
- Special insight from GordBrown in the comments of the game thread.
One of the nice things about league pass is you can back up and watch stuff really closely. Ironically, on the feed on the three that shouldn’t have been, there was a player between the camera and Bell’s feet. He did step forward however and on replay it was clear that at least half his right foot, maybe more was on the line. I’m sure if you check the special Stern addendum to the rule book (the one where he changes the rules to screw the Pistons) there is a line about it’s still a three if the left foot is completely behind the line if its the home team in Utah only.
- Back to Back Lakers style doesn’t look promising for the Pistons who have lost 14 of 17 road games.
- And in case you were wondering, Stucky’s Official Twitter account removed all the suspect tweets. Mission accomplished.
I wondered if having Ben Gorden on the floor instead of Rip would have made a difference. Rip was shooting cold and Ben seemed to be knocking them down until he was taken out.
I think they went with Rip for Defense due to the fact they had T-Mac out there and there’s no way he could check D-Will, I think Rip did a decent jod defending him in spurts!
Looks like TMac is emerging as the physical and vocal leader of this team. We definatly need one. All the other vets have had their chances
About letting Raja Bell get that 3… Why was Rip was lost under the basket and not guarding Bell? Was that what T-mac meant about about in the quote above? “I think we kind of lost attention to detail at the end. We gave up a big three to Raja Bell. And execution defensively kind of hurt us a little bit.”
Like Nat mentioned, I wondered why BG wasn’t out on the court to make those 4 quarter shots that Rip missed.
Rip hasn’t made a clutch shot in a long time (perhaps years). Our crunch time lineup should be T-Mac, Prince, Villanueva, Monroe, and then either Gordon or Stuckey, depending on who’s got the hot hand. Stuckey’s good at driving and getting fouled. However, T-Mac’s shot selection is kind of questionable near the end of games.
I agree with you. Of course, in overtime against Chicago Stuckey had the ball isolated on the wing against Rose with a sliver of daylight on the baseline. Rose of course blatantly fouled Stuckey with no call costing the game. Yes until last night I thought that was a horrible reaming by the officials. But then they seemed to have to outdo themselves.
i think t mac could of done a better job getting to the bucket, but other than that thats what i want to see grady. All those who were talking trash on him before he even put on a uniform can now say sorry. Hopefully he will be better on defense and be more a leader on and off the court. He can teach these young players how to score and how to read the defense. Love you buddy, big ben i didnt forget you either. Stay healthy and keep competing. I dont want my team to lay down and get ran over.
So finally had time to watch this one.
Still the pistons need an offensive play book that creates more movement and uses the versatility of the guys on the team.
Once the pistons get the ball comes up on offence at least half the guys on the floor look like ‘ok – what now?’. If we are going to be a slow set play team, please give the guys some basic patterns to follow. Looks kinda silly with all the guys trying to shake off their defenders on their own.
That set offence where everyone lines up on the right hand side of the floor and clears the floor for Tay to have a 1-1 go with a mid range shot or a baby-hook with absolutely no one even close to the basket to rebound is really bad. Luckily Tay makes some shots, but that’s no way to leverage the talent on the team or create defensive mistakes.